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Miliband accused over Iran exiles
Saturday,26 of September 2009
Saturday,26 of September 2009
Source: BBC News
A Labour peer has accused Foreign Secretary David Miliband of maintaining 'a shameful silence' on attacks on Iranian dissidents at a camp in Iraq.British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom chairman Lord Corbett hit out in a strongly-worded open letter. More than 3,000 people live in the Camp Ashraf, and supporters say several died in a raid by Iraqi security forces. The Foreign Office says officials will visit the camp soon and have written to Iraq’s government over the matter. Those at the camp, which was previously under US control, are members of an exiled Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mujahadeen of Iran (PMOI). Their relatives and friends have been demonstrating outside the US Embassy in London for 60 days. Several are on hunger strike. Their case has won the backing of senior Church of England clergy, led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.Lord Corbett wrote: 'At Labour’s conference you will rightly join the chorus of condemnation at Iran’s menacing nuclear deception. 'Then, why your shameful silence over the vicious assault Iran orchestrated Iraq to make two months ago on 3,500 Iranian dissidents at Camp Ashraf?' He described it as 'a brutal assault on refugees who offered no more than passive resistance against ’security forces’ armed with hand-held chains, axes, iron bars and wooden clubs embedded with nails as well as live ammunition'. Lord Corbett claimed this raid, on 28 July, had left 11 dead and more than 500 injured. 'Some 36 were arrested and remain detained despite court orders for their release. Is this the kind of democracy for which our government sent troops to die and be injured?' He said the UK had a responsibility to help ensure the safety and security of the refugees and called on Mr Miliband to try to ensure a UN monitoring force could go to the camp. Lord Corbett said a Foreign Office promise to send diplomats from the British Embassy to Ashraf had not materialised. 'Speak out this week, David, please,' he added.
Iranian exiles cite signs of Iran nuclear activity
Associated Press reported on September 24, 2009 that an Iranian exile group in France on Thursday released satellite images and details about what it claims are two sites used to research and build nuclear weapons in Iran. AF added the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a political arm of the Iranian Opposition People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, said the sites are evidence that Iran is continuing and expanding nuclear activity despite international demands to halt it.The International Atomic Energy Agency says it is investigating them. The Iranian Embassy in France would not comment.The United States and its allies fear Iran is building nuclear weapons, while Tehran insists it is seeking only nuclear energy.The Iranian exile group released material in 2002 that helped confirm a hidden Iranian uranium enrichment program and other covert activity that eventually led to three rounds of U.N. sanctions.At a Paris news conference, Mehdi Abrishamchi showed images of two sites and gave their precise locations. The first was in eastern Tehran, where he said nuclear weapons research was being carried out by an Iranian agency Metfaz. He claimed that components of nuclear weapons are being manufactured at a second site, southeast of Tehran in the village Sanjarian, accessed by a metal bridge.
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Hunger strike entered its 3rd month in Ottawa
Hundreds of Iranians in Camp Ashraf and 5 other cities around the world including Ottawa have started a hunger strike in protest to the Iraqi raid on the Iranian camp in Iraq on July 28 and 29, 2009. The number one demand of the hunger strikers is the release of 36 residents of Camp Ashraf in the hands of the Iraqis. They also want to see the U.S. to retake the protection of the camp until a UN body would replace the US permanently.
Iranian exiles cite signs of Iran nuclear activity
Associated Press reported on September 24, 2009 that an Iranian exile group in France on Thursday released satellite images and details about what it claims are two sites used to research and build nuclear weapons in Iran. AF added the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a political arm of the Iranian Opposition People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, said the sites are evidence that Iran is continuing and expanding nuclear activity despite international demands to halt it.The International Atomic Energy Agency says it is investigating them. The Iranian Embassy in France would not comment.The United States and its allies fear Iran is building nuclear weapons, while Tehran insists it is seeking only nuclear energy.The Iranian exile group released material in 2002 that helped confirm a hidden Iranian uranium enrichment program and other covert activity that eventually led to three rounds of U.N. sanctions.At a Paris news conference, Mehdi Abrishamchi showed images of two sites and gave their precise locations. The first was in eastern Tehran, where he said nuclear weapons research was being carried out by an Iranian agency Metfaz. He claimed that components of nuclear weapons are being manufactured at a second site, southeast of Tehran in the village Sanjarian, accessed by a metal bridge.
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Hunger strike entered its 3rd month in Ottawa
Hundreds of Iranians in Camp Ashraf and 5 other cities around the world including Ottawa have started a hunger strike in protest to the Iraqi raid on the Iranian camp in Iraq on July 28 and 29, 2009. The number one demand of the hunger strikers is the release of 36 residents of Camp Ashraf in the hands of the Iraqis. They also want to see the U.S. to retake the protection of the camp until a UN body would replace the US permanently. 
